Inon Z-240 Issue with TTL

[Larry C]

Since it was at the suggestion of Cathy Church's staff that I traded up from the D2000S to the Z-240 and H/W converter and they use the SP-350's extensively as rentals, I e-mailed them to see if they could provide any further help. When I hear back, I'll post. (They did recommend the YS-90 as their first choice, however)

 

[rjsimp]

Larry,

I already called them and talked to Eddie (oh geez what a Skippy ). After talking to him for an hour and debating on the fact that the Inon Z240 will do TTL and not just STTL he said... "We found that we have to use the Auto mode to make TTL work". I argued with him that it was NOT using the TTL circuit on the heinrichs in Auto mode but rather using the strobe's own circuit. Using Auto mode requires you to adjust the right hand dial and is nothing more than a light meetered manual mode. It has its uses, but is NOT TTL. He argued that it does to TTL and you can't trust the manuals because they were translated from Japanese and were wrong. Of course, I had already tried Auto and confirmed it IS really doing what it should do based on the manual but I dropped the argument.

Anyhow, trying to argue my point with him and the conversation finished with him saying, "Well, that is what we are doing and setting up for the people buying them and it works for us." So I then said, "At least you confirmed that you saw the same thing as I did trying to do TTL."

So, the summary of the conversation is.. Eddie (Cathy's technical guy) came up with the brilliant solution of using Auto and claims it works with the camera adjusting the light. In actuallity, it doesn't adjust the light in any way based on the camera settings. It will only adjusts the light based on the right hand dial settings and what the Strobe sees. So if the strobe is pointed someplace that doesn't bounce back as much light as your actual subject, then it will over fire or if your F-stop is very different to the setting on the strobe, it will not expose correctly.

Given that the YS-90 Auto Duo works in TTL, and works very nice, I would bet that the YS-110 that is now available would also work very nice. So for the SP-350, the YS-110 may be the way to go vs the Inon Z240.

 

[alcina]

So if the strobe is pointed someplace that doesn't bounce back as much light as your actual subject, then it will over fire or if your F-stop is very different to the setting on the strobe, it will not expose correctly.
.

Have you tested this? Can you post photos? These sorts of things are extremely helpful to those looking at new systems Also, you might want to drop bobf a PM - he's the strobe guru.

 

[rjsimp]

Have you tested this? Can you post photos? These sorts of things are extremely helpful to those looking at new systems Also, you might want to drop bobf a PM - he's the strobe guru.

I'll set up a test and show it.. I shot probably 300 pics yesterday and know what it did, but couldn't go pick out the pics again. So I'll show what the Auto mode does and how it is supposed to be used.

 

[Larry C]

I'll be looking forward to your post, especially any SP stuff. My H/W converter isn't in yet, so I haven't brought home the Z-240. Backscatter showed me the YS-110, and it looks real nice, though not quite as strong. On the other hand, I could have two of them for about the price of the Z-240, so ?.

 

[f3nikon]

Very interesting findings...just confirms what I have been saying all along. Good work...
Note: from your pictures, even the YS-90 is off by one f-stop as well, the Inon is off by 3 f-stops. Seems to me that the H/W converter use is only to fire the strobe and NOT control it...that sounds like an expensive triggering device. Esp. when the U/W Olympus strobe wires directly to the SP-350's hotshoe without the need for a "converter".

 

[RonFrank]

I will usually shoot manual, but I wanted to make sure the TTL was there if I needed to shoot something quick and didn't have time to take 2 or 3 shots to get the exposure the way I wanted.. at least with this, I should be able to get something decent since I would probably never shoot the wide open setting anyhow, the other settings looked pretty good just a little hot on the surrounding items which is probably because the strobe is so dang strong and the less than perfect TTL.

I'm guessing the reason that you are blowing out objects wide open is that the strobes are at the minimum output. You can't reduce the strobe power beyond the minimum!

UW this should not be an issue as the GN is reduced.

On the other issue, contact H/W and discuss this with them.

These strobes and the circuitry are so proprietary that only one with very detailed knowledge about the exact setup you are using may have the answers. So discuss this with heinrich and see what they have to say.

 

[RonFrank]

"We found that we have to use the Auto mode to make TTL work".

Ohh my, that is just wrong. If the *experts* are giving out such poor advice that is very sad indeed. TTL, and Auto modes are VERY different animals as one uses the camera's meter, and communicates Aperture settings between the camera and strobe.

 

[RonFrank]

Very interesting findings...just confirms what I have been saying all along. Good work...

Well as long the offers you some sort of validation I guess we can close the thread!

So care to share your experience with the D200, the SP-350, the Heinrichs bulkhead, or the Inon 240??

RJSIMP,

Care to show us some photo's from the D200 that appears to be working within a closer aperture range? Wide open, full stopped, and something in the middle seems to be blown out wide open (likely the strobe is a minimum output), still a bit blow out at F11, and very slightly underexposed at f22 (likely the strobe is at full power which is not enough). Shooting from f5.6 to F11 should yield the same exposure.

Actually you say it's working which is good enough for me, but the photo's really don't support that.

I wish I had advice other than to say contact Heinrich. They should have the answer. BTW, anyone have a website for them? I did a quick search, and did not see one.

 

[roswin]

There was a similar thread on digital diver few weeks ago. Same problem.
http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=19515